Evaluation Part 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback from the focus group screening showed me many things, and was a valuable tool in improving our Insanitarium trailer. The audience seemed to like our body horror effects, many mentioned the sewed up arm and some even responded with verbal shock when this section of the trailer was shown. Many commented on our sinister location, (“the location also really suited a horror film”) and our use of low key lighting (“the shot with shadows worked very well and created mystery and suspense”). The audience also commented on how well our music went with the trailer and quickened with the increasing action, with one commenting: “The music really worked with well and helped create suspense”. The shot with the swing also seemed to please a lot of the audience (“the shot with the swing looked really creepy”) and our teacher noted the classiness of the composition during the focus group. The angles we used during filming also received praise, and we were pleased our careful use of cinematography had been picked up.

The most common negative feedback we received was that the text at the start of our trailer was too quick to disappear and the audience didn’t have enough time to read the text. Also the sound effects of the trailer seemed not to fit well enough, and the levels needed to be more even. The end of the trailer also received some negative feedback and the audience noted that one of the actors has their throat slit and then after this in the trailer we see them throw up. Some of the audience also mentioned that our editing in general could be sped up. To sort the ending out we need to change when the victim throws up (or delete the scene completely) and then add to the jumping out of the killer with a louder and more chilling sound.

We made several last minute changes to the trailer after we received this feedback. First off we lengthened the time the text was on screen by two seconds so the audience will be able to read it fully. We also added a few last minute shots of ourselves lost in the Insanitarium, shot from an unsettling low handheld angle. The sound issues were easily solved by lining up to the video more accurately; this was simply done by zooming in to a frame-by-frame level and ensuring they lined up accurately. The problems with the chronological order were also easily fixed by deleting certain clips (Chloe and Vikcy being sick) and also moving a short selection of location shots to an earlier point in the trailer.

I was really pleased with the audience’s response during the final evaluation screening, we seemed to have really fixed the problems that were highlighted in the focus group screening “the writing at the start of the trailer is now eligible” “the ending is a lot better than in the focus group screening”.  The trailer now seems to really appeal to horror fans. Our final score was an average of 8 out of 10.  It has the anti-convention and mainstream aspects that the fans of the horror subculture pay to see. The trailer is much like existing horror films being similar to Creep as it has a grubby surgeon character and Hostel due to the body horror effects.  My personal favourite aspect of our trailer is the use of body horror, everything from making the gore effects, to how they looked on the final trailer. I also really admired the cinematography at the start of the trailer. With the slow shots of the decaying building it helps make the Insaniterium really sinister and striking.